Clare Cowgill
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clarecowgill.bsky.social
Clare Cowgill
@clarecowgill.bsky.social
Nature lover 🌿 | PhD researcher at Hull University | Rewild cluster | Using eDNA to study rewilding 🦫 |
She/ her
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Excited to share my new (and first!) paper. We reviewed how environmental DNA can be applied to terrestrial rewilding monitoring- particularly which sampling substrates to use and how eDNA compares to other monitoring approaches 🧬

www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...
Frontiers | Monitoring terrestrial rewilding with environmental DNA metabarcoding: a systematic review of current trends and recommendations
www.frontiersin.org
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
A new special feature in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social  aims to highlight recent technological advances that address the challenges of sampling rare species using eDNA 🐬 🧬

The deadline for proposals is 29th June 🕐

Find out more here 👇https://f.mtr.cool/ydtkemkjov
June 17, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
1. It’s good to see this scandal being called out at last. My thanks and congratulations go to Lee Schofield, Karen Lloyd and Ian Convery. But it’s also absolutely infuriating that it has come to this point, as I explain in this thread.
www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Conservationists call for Lake District to lose Unesco world heritage status
Campaigners say designation promotes unsustainable sheep farming at expense of nature recovery and local communities
www.theguardian.com
June 8, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Different worldviews and knowledge systems
influence the ways people interact with and value nature. 🌿- IPBES #ValuesAssessment

All these values must be considered to effectively address the #biodiversity crisis. 🌍🧪

Read the Values Assessment Report: www.ipbes.net/the-values-a...
May 28, 2025 at 1:41 PM
🌊 Blue spaces survey 🌿

Our Rewild research group is exploring how blue spaces like rivers, lakes, and coasts support both people and nature.

🕒 It takes just 5 minutes and is completely anonymous.

👉 app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/hull/blue-...
May 21, 2025 at 8:28 AM
Really thankful for the opportunity to present at #UKDNAWG25 - couldn’t ask for a lovelier audience!
@clarecowgill.bsky.social compared #eDNA, #ecoacoustics + camera trapping for monitoring #terrestrial rewilding. Aquatic, soil + surface (tree rolling) #eDNA used. Most species with #ecoacoustics + tree rolling. More mammals + amphibians with #eDNA. More birds with #ecoacoustics #UKDNAWG25
May 14, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Utilizing #aquatic environmental DNA #eDNA to address global #biodiversity targets: www.nature.com/articles/s44...

🧬🔬🐟🦫🍂🦐🧬

We discuss how eDNA can contribute towards Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Franework #GBF. Out now in @natrevbiodiv.nature.com
Utilizing aquatic environmental DNA to address global biodiversity targets - Nature Reviews Biodiversity
Aquatic eDNA-based technologies offer the potential for universal and standardized biodiversity monitoring. In this Perspective, Altermatt et al. discuss how these technologies can help to achiev...
www.nature.com
April 28, 2025 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
#eDNA #eRNA #omics people: would you support the formation of a European Society for Environmental Omics #ESEO? Please share your thoughts in the questionnaire & spread this message! 🙏
Thank you, the ESEO core team!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
European Society for Environmental Omics (ESEO)
Dear Environmental Omics enthusiasts! At the AquaEcOmics meeting in Evian (March, 2025), an international group of 35 experts discussed the future of regular European meetings and collaborative effor...
docs.google.com
April 29, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
🌿 Our new study in @natplants.nature.com: Most European temperate forest plants are associated with semi-open, herbivore-shaped habitats—not closed-canopy #forests 🐎🌳🔆🌸 Highlights the need for trophic #rewilding in #conservation & need to avoid uniform dense #reforestation🌿
📄 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Temperate forest plants are associated with heterogeneous semi-open canopy conditions shaped by large herbivores - Nature Plants
Temperate forest plants favour heterogeneous semi-open woodlands associated with high herbivore densities, rather than uniform closed-canopy forests. Herbivore loss is therefore a probable driver of e...
doi.org
April 14, 2025 at 11:30 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
April 8, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Can #eDNA recover biotic interactions? Our new study says Yes sometimes! Co-occurrence network analyses with data for the Moray Firth marine ecosystem recovered subsets of known food web trophic links but methodological issues are still a challenge ⤵️ 🧪🧬🌍🐳🦭🐟
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
March 4, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Huge step forward for beavers in England, been a long time coming! 🦫
February 28, 2025 at 7:56 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Yet another study finds that diverse forests store far more carbon than monoculture plantations. Previous research in the tropics showed it could be 40x more.

Natural forests also help stabilise the climate in other, equally vital ways. WHEN will this penny drop?
scienceblog.com/tree-diversi...
Tree diversity increases carbon sequestration
The world's oldest tropical tree diversity experiment has delivered compelling evidence that forests with multiple tree species capture significantly more
scienceblog.com
February 27, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
NFU President Tom Bradshaw boasts that last year the NFU "fended off the Right to Roam".

Labour must decide whether to side with an unrepresentative lobby group, or the grassroots @righttoroam.bsky.social campaign whose ask is backed by 69% of the public.

www.nfuonline.com/updates-and-...
February 25, 2025 at 11:13 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Sheep Eat Oystercatchers, Curlew & Lapwings!

Extraordinary new case study out in BTO's magazine showing that out of 20 predated nests observed by nest cameras, **30% of predation took place by sheep eating the eggs!**

And we still see sheep as benign...

www.bto.org/sites/defaul... (pages 4-5)
January 31, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
We found…
1) #eDNA #metabarcoding is underutilised in terrestrial contexts vs aquatic systems

2) Few studies sample multiple substrates or measure functional diversity metrics

3) sampling design, substrate(s) & assay choice should be carefully considered as they are highly context dependent.
January 2, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Excited to share my new (and first!) paper. We reviewed how environmental DNA can be applied to terrestrial rewilding monitoring- particularly which sampling substrates to use and how eDNA compares to other monitoring approaches 🧬

www.frontiersin.org/journals/con...
Frontiers | Monitoring terrestrial rewilding with environmental DNA metabarcoding: a systematic review of current trends and recommendations
www.frontiersin.org
January 2, 2025 at 7:40 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Shameful decision from Sweden which has no excuse for exterminating wolves like this. Imagine India decided to halve its tiger population, or Kenya its lions? There'd be an outcry.

www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Sweden begins wolf hunt as it aims to halve endangered animal’s population
Five entire families can be killed, totalling 30 wolves, in move campaigners say is illegal under EU law
www.theguardian.com
January 1, 2025 at 9:47 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Check out our latest paper on #eDNA and metabarcoding data reporting standards 🤓🧬🧪

These minimum reporting guidelines for metabarcoding workflows extend from the physical layout of laboratories through to data archiving enhance trust and reliability in data

mbmg.pensoft.net/article/1286...
The MIEM guidelines: Minimum information for reporting of environmental metabarcoding data
Environmental DNA (eDNA) and RNA (eRNA) metabarcoding has become a popular tool for assessing biodiversity from environmental samples, but inconsistent documentation of methods, data and metadata make...
mbmg.pensoft.net
December 30, 2024 at 12:24 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
The first pre-print from Jake Jackman's PhD on #eDNA monitoring of the River Mersey, UK. We compare multiple filter types across a saline gradient (marine to freshwater) in a strongly tidal estuary. All filters generally work well, including the passive metaprobe! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 22, 2024 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
☎️ calling all budding #freshwater or #molecular ecologists!

Great #PhD with me, Fred Windsor, @danread.bsky.social + @jordancuff.bsky.social looking at impact of stressors + climate change on #ponds with #eDNA #metabarcoding to inform conservation + health assessment

Link below - apply by 13 Jan!
a close up of an otter wearing a leash on a leash .
ALT: a close up of an otter wearing a leash on a leash .
media.tenor.com
December 17, 2024 at 4:45 PM
Finished up a fab week at #BES2024 by presenting my research on ‘multi-tool’ monitoring of rewilding. Thanks to everyone for being so lovely all week! #eDNA #Bioacoustics
December 13, 2024 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
So proud of this lot… 4 first big conference talks at #BES2024 by @clareycollins.bsky.social @clarecowgill.bsky.social Matthew Morgan and Tom Spencer from #UniofHull #Rewild research cluster + #EvoHull and they all smashed it! 👏👏👏👏
December 13, 2024 at 5:46 PM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
We're offering a PhD place on Rewilding!

This PhD will study the wilder grazing at Purbeck Heaths ‘Super National Nature Reserve’, which is shifting towards the restoration of natural processes to create a more dynamic, complex landscape
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
November 28, 2024 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Clare Cowgill
Golden eagle project plans England expansion www.bbc.com/news/article...
South of Scotland Golden eagle project plans England expansion
A conservation project is looking to build on its success by taking the birds into England and Wales.
www.bbc.com
November 23, 2024 at 10:42 AM